Time to Say Goodbye and Hello
by WheresMyHighwind
Summary: Fang wakes up disoriented and alone in Valhalla. She ponders if the world has ended, that she, in her crystal sleep, had slumbered into another era. As she traverses the realm of Etro, whose presence is far and faint, what will she encounter? First fic writing in 5 years, comments are greatly appreciated. FangRai implied.


Thirst. That was the first feeling that Oerba Yun Fang experienced before she opened her eyes. Rolling to her side, she curled inwards into herself as the pain similar to being charged by a behemoth overtook her. Slowly her eyes fluttered open but shut almost immediately due to the illumination of the world around her being too bright for her newly found sight. Trying again slowly, she took in the room she was in. The cold hard stone beneath her form, a bright light illuminating her like a spotlight, yet it was dark and dreary everywhere else. Fang got up but faltered, gracelessly falling back to where she started. Her eyes scanned the room for her lance, not remembering where she last had it. Heck, she just realized she has no idea where she was. Fang cautiously crawled towards a pillar off to the side of the area she was in. Using the pillar as support, she pulled herself up and checked upon herself.

"Nothin' seems broken at least, must have been in Crystal Stasis for a while." She mused.

Where were the others? Has it been another 500 years that she had parted with her loved ones? Was she all alone in this world now? Not wanting to waste away by the pillar under the unyielding light, Fang started walking towards stairs she saw in front of where she woke up. Without her lance, she felt defenseless. This world, where ever it was, had a slight ominous eeriness to it. Every footstep she took echoed within the vast emptiness, every breath she took bounced off the walls and surrounded her with her existence. It was truly just her in this labyrinth, yet she was still certain she wasn't alone.

It took Fang longer than she had envisioned to get to the top of the stairs. It was like this place, this Labyrinth, was seeping a chilling feeling into her soul. The air was dripping in melancholy, dampening Fang's mood more than she would ever admit. Fang began to doubt herself. Did she make the right choice? Sacrificing herself and Vanille to save Cocoon. Did they save it? Or did it fall despite their efforts to save the lives of the others of their party? Did Lightning survive? She was harder to kill than a Gigantaur, faster than her namesake, stronger than Fang herself. Was she alive? Or was she gone like everyone else? The party was a family, a family that might be gone, again. Was this despair, this cold eerie Labyrinth, her personal Hell? A place for her to atone the sins she had done, the lives she took, the madness she created when she became Ragnarock?

Fang reached the summit where the stairs lead her, finding herself on a simple platform. Light shone through from the center of the roof, illuminating her again. The hairs on the back of her neck stood, she had caught the smell of gun powder and roses. She knew this scent, her nose keen on tracking, a talent both a blessing and a curse, filled her with confusion, sadness, fear, longing, and dread. She felt as though a shadow had come to haunt her, a shadow of a pinkette whose words bit harder than a Gorgonopsid, who built walls stronger than the shell of a Lucidon.

"Lightning?" Fang uttered, unsure.

A gust ripped through the room with enough force to make Fang fall to her knees, feathers blew past her. Surrounded by the scent of a woman so strong she could only admire her from afar, Fang bit her tongue to stop herself from crying. She missed everyone. She wanted to see them, she wanted to see-

As though Etro heard her plea, Fang was greeted by visions of the past and the future. Green hills, low valleys, a child Fang running up and down the village causing havoc for the village, a small Vanille being held by an adolescent Fang as they both were caught in the middle of a Viper raid. Memories of her past life flashed before her eyes, from her childhood to her late teens, but the scenes changed. An image of a small pinkette, eyes dazzling with emotion as she held onto a small bundle in her arms, a small pinkette playing around a well-furnished house with a bigger pinkette, the images started to blur as the older pinkette's eyes started to lose its sparkle over the years of memories that Fang was witnessing, from the deaths of her parents to caring for her younger sister, to her frustrations at her jobs and studies, joining the army. Fang witnessed it all, all that made Lightning Farron and separated her from Claire Farron.

Overwhelmed with emotions not just of her own but of Lightning's, she held back a sob as she kept watching the scenes before her play. She witnessed the survival of the team, the efforts of Hope, the eventual fall of Cocoon that lay waste to the land, the fate of everyone around them. Yet, where was Lightning? As though summoned, a transparent Lightning appeared before her eyes next to her on the platform. Fang extended a hand, only to have her hand simply go through the illusion of Lightning. Lightning reaches out towards the light, as though she heard someone speaking to her. Shielding her eyes away from the blinding light, Fang was greeted by the sight of Lightning in a different garb. Like a knight, Lightning stood there hand held by her heart, and kneeling, as though accepting her role as a guardian.

"Those feathers look like a pain to take care of every battle, you think Etro ever thought about practical design?" a voice within the darkness called out to Fang.

Fang, alerted, reached behind her sari where she kept a small knife for hunting. "Who is there?"

"Oh don't get your sari in a bunch, I'm just a friendly neighborhood brat hanging out in the darkness."

"Who. Are. You?" Fang snarled as she pulled out the knife trying to locate the source of the voice.

"Ah fine grandma, put the knife away, I'm like 12 and unarmed. I'm Lumina." Lumina leaped off of a broken pillar in the corner of the platform and languidly made her way over to Fang.

Ignoring the insult of her age, Fang walked up to Lumina slowly, knife stowed away but within reach. As she scanned over Lumina's face, the similarity to both the Farron sisters made Fang halt.

"Just who are you, and why do you look like them?" Fang cursed at herself for making her sound so vulnerable.

Lumina grinned, or rather smirked "Wouldn't you like to know, I'm just a brat who plays in the dark. Or maybe I'm not. Either way, you want to get out, don't you? But before that, maybe we should play a game. You might want that by the way. Don't fail me now Grams!" Lumina gestured towards the middle of the platform, which now had Fang's lance laying on the floor, Fang snapped her head back towards Lumina to discover that a Behemoth stood in her place now. The behemoth had an unworldly tinge to it, as though its soul was corrupt from the inside out, a rotten core.

Fang had never felt nervous in a fight before, but this time was different, she felt off. The large monster stood above her, its eyes a rotten color, its hands wielding claws longer than her lance. This monster was quite obviously a monster, but with the atmosphere inflicting something similar to a curse upon her didn't help ease away any feeling of uncertainty. Letting out the breath she had been holding in, she tried to find anything to advantage. If she moved now, unarmed to run and grab the lance behind her, she'll be open for too long.

She never prayed, but just this once she prayed to Etro for her not to miss the mark. She inhaled at a steady pace, gathering strength in her left arm. Her left arm was as good an aim as her right was, but she needed both to distract it somehow. With her right, she dug around in her satchel for anything to use. She found a small rock in her pouch and carefully threw it past the behemoth. Startled, it averted its sight slightly towards its left where she threw the rock, and without missing a beat, she threw her hunting knife with extra force, embedding it into the behemoths right eye. The howl-roar hybrid of the behemoth shook the platform enough to shake debris into the air. Using this tactic to her advantage, she leaped backward and grabbed her lance, going into a commando stance.

Blinded in one eye, and blinded with rage in the other, the behemoth raised its arm to deliver a devastating hit to Fang. Fang grunted as she switched over to a sentential stance just in time for the hit. Not wanting to miss a single moment, Fang changed over to her commando stance and began to unleash a small number of hits to build up some momentum between her and the monstrosity in front of her. She let out a few debuffs towards the behemoth, causing it to falter. 'This isn't fast enough, I need to go faster' Fang cursed her ability to not know how to cast Haste upon herself, not taking the time to learn it on the journey. "Oi, ya big and ugly thing, eat my lance!" Fang taunted it again and again, in hopes that it'll come charging instead of getting on its hind legs.

"Oops! Looks like you messed up Grams, he looks prettttty mad now" the bodiless voice of Lumina danced around Fang, echoing in her skull. "If you don't do something quickly, you might end up like sis!~" Lumina sung. Fang whipped around to find Lumina; this left her open to the large clawed hand of the behemoth to come slashing at her. Fang slammed into the broken pillar Lumina was perched upon. Groaning, Fang let out "I had thought you had up and left and missed the show Lil missy." Lumina laughed, "I did, but you took too long I had thought you died. Grams, you better hurry up or you'll waste away in this darkness."

Fang got up, ignoring the pain in her abdomen, and charged back at the behemoth, catching it off guard. She kept trying to keep a combo going, but the damn thing would not stagger. Catching the sight of lightning, Fang let out a sigh. 'I guess the kid ain't that bad.' As the element struck the behemoth, she delivered a heavy blitz, staggering the large monster. Wasting not a second, she unleashed a Launch. With it in the air, Fang leaped up parallel to it and performed her signature finishing move; Highwind. Raising her lance up, she used the force of her whole body and gravity to pierce the underbelly of the behemoth and striking it down, her lance cutting through it like it was formless and made of shadows. The monster disappeared as though it never existed in this realm. She turned to face the smirking Lumina.

"Well, what do you know, Grams. You're pretty strong despite being over 500 years old. Maybe you'll enjoy the world out there." Lumina winked. Before Fang could ask any questions, she fell into a rip in the fabric of space.

Fang awoke again on cold hard stone, but before her was not emptiness, but it well as may have been. The emotions she held back came surging into her chest. Before her was Lightning Farron, donned with the armor of Etro, sleeping in an eternal slumber upon the throne of Etro. Fang scrabbled up, reaching over to place her hands upon Lightning's cheek. I doing so, memories of Lightning's journey within the realm of Etro came surging into her. The loss of one's sister was something Fang knew all too well, but right now, Fang was lost in the sorrow that she cannot reunite with Lightning.

"She'll be okay Fang," Lumina spoke languidly, interrupting her thoughts by appearing, perched upon the top of Etro's throne like a raven over watching everything. "She will awaken again, but only at the end of the world." Fang stood there silently knowing that everyone else was safe in the world outside of this labyrinth, but pondered why she was brought here. "Etro had enough life in her to give you one last wish Fang, you might have killed her beloved creations of life, but you were also one of them."

"For a brat from the darkness, you sure shine like Sunshine over here. I'm ready to go, are you?" Fang ruffled Lumina's hair, not missing the small blush from her.

"To Nova Chrysalia it is then."Lumina snapped her fingers, and they were gone, leaving Lightning's statue alone in the depths of Valhalla.

* * *

Fang heard the rumors, she had seen the signs, but she was still waiting for the day she would be able to see the person she had been waiting for all this time.

Footsteps getting louder and louder from the hall, two pairs of feet. One was heavy and loud, the other familiar and lighter than a cat.

Fang grinned as Adonis announced "Here she is Boss. The new recruit with the crazy powers". Fang hummed, no longer paying attention to Adonis, pleased as she heard a small sharp intake of air behind her. She turned around in her chair gracefully, lance in hand, and faced the woman before her.

"Perfect timin'," tinged with a slight smugness to her tone to hide away the excitement she held in for many years. "Glad you could make it. Took ya long enough didn't it?". Fang could only stare at Lightning, a weight had come off her shoulders, the years of waiting for an old friend. At least she's here now.

* * *

A/N:

I haven't written ANYTHING in about 5 years aside from school work and I have no idea how or why I wrote this. A small drabble from an idea. The spacing and timing is weird and I apologize for that, I wrote this in one sitting. I wish I didn't stop writing, but I did. Writing isn't my strongest talent, but I would love some constructive criticism. The fanfiction community is lovely (aside from some rotten eggs) and I would love to learn how to love writing again. Thank you much y'all.

-Highwind


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